Schembri wins National Book Prize, calls for clerical abuse inquiry

Author Karl Schembri took the top honour at the National Book Prize with his groundbreaking novel Eħlisna mid-Deni, a story built on devastating events from his own life and the sexual abuse suffered by his father at the hands of a Catholic priest.

Former MaltaToday editor Karl Schembri used his National Book Prize acceptance speech to call for a public, independent inquiry into clerical abuse in Malta, saying the church had known about the abuse of children for decades, allowed it to continue and covered it up.

“To this day, Malta has never had a public, independent inquiry into this,” Schembri said after winning the prize for his novel Eħlisna mid-Deni.

The novel tells the story of a man who kidnaps an elderly, widely revered priest, ties him to a chair and forces him to listen to his life story. It is rooted in Schembri’s own family tragedy: his father was sexually abused by a priest as a child, later developed severe mental illness and eventually killed Schembri’s mother.

The novel turns that personal trauma into a wider reckoning with clerical abuse, institutional silence and the search for justice.

Schembri dedicated the award to victims of clerical abuse and to “all those who were humiliated and silenced by the Church, by the State, and even by our courts”.

“Because the courts, when all is said and done, administer the law, not justice,” he said.

He said he hoped the novel could help those whose voices had been “extinguished over the years” to find their voice.

Schembri also dedicated the prize to the memory of his parents and his sister Katia, who he said had lived through the story recounted in the novel with him.

He thanked Merlin Publishers, publisher Chris Gruppetta and editor Clare Azzopardi, as well as Adrian Grima, Alex Vella Gera, Albert Gatt, Matthew Vella, Gilbert Calleja and Glen Calleja, who he said had helped him keep writing “through the darkest moments of this journey”.

He paid tribute to the late writer Mario Azzopardi, whom he described as his “intellectual father”, recalling his words: “Write, Karl, for God’s sake, write.”

Schembri ended by reaffirming his “absolute faith in literature”, describing it as “a powerful weapon of justice”.

Eħlisna mid-Deni was shortlisted alongside M.J. Camilleri’s Sunset Exiles, David Aloisio’s Fis-sema hekkda fl-art and Daniel Schembri’s Kult.